Wilber Dotel was scheduled to start for Triple-A Indianapolis at Omaha when the 23-year-old right-hander got word that he had been scratched during pregame workouts.<\/p>\n
Dotel had to hurry to pack his bags and take an early morning flight to Pittsburgh so he could be at PNC Park in time for Sunday\u2019s series finale against the Tampa Bay Rays.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey told me to stop what I was doing at that time,\u201d Dotel said through translator and Pirates coach Stephen Morales. \u201cDuring the game they told me I was coming up here to the big leagues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Signed to a $65,000 bonus as an 18-year-old out of the Dominican Republic, Dotel has risen to the No. 12 prospect in the Pirates\u2019 system per MLB Pipeline. The 6-foot-3, 238-pounder was added to their 40-man roster last November to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft.<\/p>\n
Dotel knew he was only a step away from the major leagues and that he would be making his MLB debut if he controlled his performance. The decision to promote Dotel was prompted more out of desperation than performance. Dotel was 1-2 with a 6.28 ERA, 1.74 WHIP and 13 strikeouts against seven walks in three starts for Indianapolis.<\/p>\n
The Pirates depleted their bullpen Saturday night following a two-hour, 27-minute rain delay, as the 13-inning loss to the Rays required six relievers. To make room for Dotel, the Pirates optioned righty Cam Sanders, who was recalled Friday but allowed four runs on three hits and a walk in two-thirds of an inning in his season debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great story,\u201d Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said Sunday in an appearance on 93.7 The Fan. \u201cThis is a kid who is a little bit older, passed over player in the international market. We signed him. Our scouts liked the physicality, just a big, physical kid with arm strength. A really, really good worker. He\u2019s had a reputation as being one of our strongest workers since he signed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s made steady progress through the minor leagues. Started this year as a starter. We got into an extreme situation coming out of last night\u2019s game. Pretty obvious we needed to make a move for everyone\u2019s sake. Ideally, that pitcher coming up was going to be someone who could provide length, more a starter type pitcher. That\u2019s what Dotel is. He got the call. Good chance he\u2019s going to pitch today. It\u2019s a big arm. It\u2019s up to the high 90s with a slider. I\u2019m looking forward to seeing him pitch. We\u2019ll see where that goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
That leaves Dotel, who throws a four-seam fastball, sinker, slider and a splitter that has become a putout pitch, as the likely candidate to serve in bulk relief even though he\u2019s been exclusively a starter the past two-plus seasons. Dotel was 7-9 with a 4.15 ERA, 1.23 WHIP and 131 strikeouts in 125 2\/3 innings over 27 starts last season at Double-A Altoona, ranking third in the Eastern League in strikeouts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should feel normal,\u201d Dotel said. \u201cI did it in spring training, coming out of the \u2018pen. I haven\u2019t done it that often in my career, but it should be OK.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dotel was 2-0 with a 4.50 ERA and 1.50 WHIP over four innings in two appearances (one start) in Grapefruit League play, so he\u2019s familiar with the Pirates\u2019 pitching staff and coaches. But he was still trying to wrap his mind around how fast he made it to the majors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to take it all in,\u201d Dotel said. \u201cIt feels normal right now, but I\u2019ll get back to you after the game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wilber Dotel was scheduled to start for Triple-A Indianapolis at Omaha when the 23-year-old right-hander got word that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-617769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}